Rain and new solar fields will make for tough dove opener

EL CENTRO, Calif.  Steve Bishop, a farmer in Imperial Valley for nearly 40 years, looked out onto a stubble wheat field tucked away near the International Border and just shook his head.

“Last week, the doves were all down at our place where we hunt opening day, but now they’re all up here, feeding with the pigeons,” Bishop said. “The doves didn’t show up here until the pigeons did, and now look.”

There were doves everywhere, but Bishop said there weren’t nearly as many as there were before the monsoon rains hit this area in August. Farmers like Bishop haven’t seen rain like they had in August in Imperial Valley for at least a decade.

“Before the rains -- and we had storms every week -- the doves were as thick as blackbirds around our place, but they’ve moved out and now are up here,” he said.

Dove season opens a half hour before sunrise Saturday to officially start the state hunting season.

Hunters arriving Friday will need to scout for pockets of doves that have outlasted the storms. Blythe and Palo Verde were slammed last week, and then the earthquakes hit in Brawley.

Leon Lesicka of Desert Wildlife Unlimited said dove numbers dropped, but there were plenty of DWU-Department of Fish and Game food plots holding birds.

“I saw over 1,000 birds on a field today when I got there and then after sitting there for five, 10 minutes, another 500 or so flew in,” Lesicka said on Tuesday. “The rains have them moving around quite a bit.”

Lesicka said fields around Wiest Lake and the old pheasant farm are holding lots of birds. And fields along the East Highline Canal always can be counted on for good numbers.

A drive along the south end of the valley showed a number of stubble wheat fields, but chances are many of them will be posted for the opener. Those fields can be hunted on the edges where the birds are entering or leaving after graining. Mendel Woodland, a hunter scouting from San Dimas on Tuesday morning, said he didn’t see many birds until he reached farther south in Imperial Valley.

“I drove the length of Forrester Road and didn’t see much,” Woodland said as he looked at birds at a field south of I-8 near the Mexican border.

One thing that hunters are going see this fall that will be shocking to them is the thousands of acres that are going to be cleared for solar panels. The project already has started, and there’s fencing along Anza and Pulliam roads. More than 15,000 acres in south Imperial County has been leased for 45 years by the solar company. That means 15,000 acres of wildlife habitat gone from the mix here.

“They’re taking out a lot of prime pheasant habitat,” retired Department of Fish and Game Lt. game warden Joe Brana said.

The switch from agriculture to solar fields will also kill farm jobs here. And locals also are fretting about the amount of dust that will be kicked up when high desert winds hit those fallow fields.

Notes: The Barbara Worth Resort and Country Club in Holtville has sold out of double bed rooms, but kings are available for $89, or $119 for the dove-opener package that includes a tri-tip barbecue for two, breakfast for two and more. Call (760) 356-5800.